Silverado group continues fight to keep school open

Children plead with cars at the corner of Katella Ave. and Wanda Rd. in Orange to honk in support of their groups protest against the Orange Unified School District proposed closure of Silverado in this file photo from earlier this month. MICHAEL GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SILVERADO -- Just two weeks after the Orange Unified School Board voted to close down Silverado Elementary, a strong-willed group of parents and residents continues to fight to keep their beloved campus open.

They are organized through a network of e-mails, a blog and neighborhood meetings.

The group, made of about two to three dozen parents and residents from the canyon community, have started petition drives, letter-writing campaigns, and continue to attend school board meetings to plea with school board members to reconsider their decision.

On March 12, trustees voted 4-3 to close Silverado Elementary as part of a plan to eliminate a $30.1 million deficit over the next 18 months.

The school board also voted to eliminate middle school athletics, increase class sizes in first and second grades from 20 to 25 students, eliminate one counselor at each high school, charge high school athletes $30 a sport, and to pursue a plan to reduce all employee salaries by 3.75 percent.

Three other schools had been proposed for closure - Panorama Elementary, Riverdale Elementary and Imperial Elementary. But trustees decided the district would remain solvent with the cuts package and closure of Silverado, the district's smallest campus with just 73 students and the most isolated.

Closing Silverado will save the district $263,000 annually, officials said.

Silverado parents had asked for a one-year reprieve to keep the school open while they sought donations and other resources to convert the campus into a charter school focused on environmental sciences and technology.

Group members plan to carry signs outside the school board room before Thursday's meeting. They also plan to "greet" employees at district headquarters as they arrive for work Thursday with more picket signs.

Bloggers, on savesilveradoelementary.blogspot.com, have posted addresses and form letters of local, state and federal politicians hoping to solicit their support. They also have chronicled the struggle to keep the school open by including news stories, photos and videos.

The latest blog posting states that Silverado Principal Pat Evans has agreed to forgo a portion of her salary if the school board reconsiders and decides to keep the school open for another year.

But Evans, a semi-retired principal, says that's not quite the case. Evans, who works part time, also serves as a district homeless liaison, and in works in other district-wide programs.

Evans said she would be willing to return to Silverado as principal and perform the same other district duties next school year for the same salary as she earns currently.

"If the school board asks me to return to Silverado, I'd be more than glad to," she said.

Still, other Silverado parents say Orange Unified will actually lose more money by closing the school than if it kept the campus open because most parents would remove their children from the district, taking with them about $5,000 per student in state funding, rather than bus them to Chapman Hills Elementary.

But resdient Rebecca Jones says she'd much rather keep her daughter at Silverado Elementary.

"We are not going to give up," Jones said. "There is too much at stake, not just for parents and students, but for the entire Silverado community."

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